SST product

A sea-surface temperature (SST) product was used for the spatial analysis of marine heatwaves (MHWs) at the surface of the Mediterranean.

Name: Mediterranean SST Analysis L4
Date range: 1982-01-01 to 2019-12-31
Spatial resolution: ~ 4 km
Temporal resolution: daily
Spatial coverage: 18.1°W - 36.2°E; 30.3°N - 46.0°N
- Includes a bit of the Atlantic
- Excludes the Black Sea

MHW

“A prolonged discrete anomalously warm water event that can be described by its duration, intensity, rate of evolution, and spatial extent.” (Hobday et al. 2016)

Temperature at a location exceeds the 90th percentile for a given calendar day, for 5+ days, with no more than a 2 day gap

Metrics

See Table 2 in Hobday et al. (2016) for a full list of metrics.

Count (n): The number of discrete events in a period of time
Duration (days): The number of days a single event lasts for
Mean intensity (°C): The average temperature anomaly during an event
Maximum intensity (°C): The highest temperature anomaly during the event
Cumulative intensity (°C days): The sum of the temperature anomalies
Rate onset (°C/day): Daily increase in temperature from start to peak of event
Rate decline (°C/day): Daily decrease from peak to end of event

Anatomy

Full Med

Duration

Coastal data ts box of French Spanish coast (coords from newest spreadsheet)

NW Med

NW patterns
Time series of the 5 year period

Next steps

MHW statistics at large spatial scales
Basic comparison of MMEs and MHWs
- Do they occur in the same ecoregions?
- Do they occur in the same/neighbouring seasons?

References

Hobday, Alistair J., Lisa V. Alexander, Sarah E. Perkins, Dan A. Smale, Sandra C. Straub, Eric C. J. Oliver, Jessica A. Benthuysen, et al. 2016. “A hierarchical approach to defining marine heatwaves.” Progress in Oceanography 141: 227–38. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pocean.2015.12.014.

SST MHWs in the Med

Robert Schlegel

2021-02-23